PRESS RELEASE
6 October, 2009
WRITING ACROSS CULTURES
Bringing some of the world’s top creative writing programs to Asia

Writers teaching in some of the world’s top Creative Writing programs will talk about how they mentor students and important aspects of craft at ‘Writing Across Cultures’ in Hong Kong, 9-11 March 2010.

‘Writing Across Cultures’ is a two-day event for students and teachers of creative writing in Asia, organised by The University of Adelaide based Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership and The English Department of The City University of Hong Kong, in conjunction with the Man Hong Kong International Literary Festival.

Instead of academic papers, ‘provocateurs’ will talk for four or five minutes about aspects of craft and teaching writing then open the discussion to the audience. A roundtable on the first day will focus on teaching creative writing in the academy. The next day will focus on teaching creative writing in English in Asia.

‘Not many countries in the region offer creative writing at university level,’ said the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership’s founding director, Jane Camens. ‘I know of a number of excellent emerging writers who have left Asia to study creative writing abroad, generally in the United States or UK. Few know about the excellent programs on Asia’s doorstep in Australia.’

‘Writing Across Cultures’ will feature representatives from top writing programs in Australia, the United States, Britain and the region. They include:

* Robin Hemley from the Iowa Writers Workshop, University of Iowa,
* Andrew Cowan, Director of the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia,
* Brian Castro, Chair of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Adelaide (home of the Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership),
* Marilyn Chin, who teaches Creative Writing in the Master of Fine Arts program at San Diego State University.
* Catherine Cole, Chair of Creative Writing at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT),
* Kim Cheng Boey who teaches Creative Writing at the University of Newcastle,
* Jose Dalisay, Director of the Institute of Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines,
* Dai Fan, Chair of English at Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou (China), who teaches creative non fiction in China.

The Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership’s first event was held in India in October 2008. It strives to hold events throughout the region in conjunction with local universities and writers organisations and bring to those events its international network of writing talent.

The Partnership is based within the Creative Writing Program of the University of Adelaide under the auspices of distinguished Australian writer Professor Brian Castro. Its founding director Jane Camens also founded the Hong Kong International Literary Festival with writers Nury Vittachi and Shirley Geok-lin Lim.

at the Singapore Writers Festival, The Arts House, 11.00am on 25 Oct 09.Step into the quirky, tender, luminous world of Wena Poon. Poon’s first book, Lions in Winter, was listed for both 2008 Irish Frank O’Connor Award and the Singapore Literature Prize, was on the Straits Times Bestseller List for Fiction, as well as nominated for the Popular Readers’ Choice Awards. To RSVP, please contact Adeleena. Tel: 68464771 or email: events@ethosbooks.com.sgat the Singapore Writers Festival, The Arts House, 6.30pm on 31 Oct 09.Celebrating the release of 2 new children’s books from bestselling children’s book author Adeline Foo. Adeline will be joined by illustrators Lee Kowling and Christine Lim Simpson. To RSVP, please contact Adeleena. Tel: 68464771 or email: events@ethosbooks.com.sg
Our Literatures in English26 Oct 09, 9am to 6.30pm @ Living Room, The Arts House, Free AdmissionWith the support of the National Arts Council, the National Library Board, and the Department of English Language and Literature, FASS, National University of Singapore, the National Book Development Council of Singapore is organizing Sharing Borders, a Singapore – Malaysia Writers Symposium, as part of the Singapore Writers Festival.
The Symposium would like to reflect the broad reach of our literatures in English by bringing together scholars and writers to address the engagement of our literatures.
A milestone study of Singapore and Malaysian literature in English in two volumes, under the general editorship of Prof Edwin Thumboo will also be launched at this event. The publication will trace the historical and cultural development of both countries via key literary figures, groups and movements.Please download details and registration form here
The Business of Books 28-29 Oct 09, 9am to 5.30pm @ Blue Room, The Arts House, registration fees appliedAlways wanted to learn the secrets of the publishing industry as well as getting yourself published? This two-day professional symposium is the perfect opportunity for you to learn from industry experts (Singaporean and international) the work involved into bringing a book from manuscript to published work.This two-day symposium is suitable for those in the publishing and related industries as well as aspiring and established writers. There will be opportunities for participants to meet with panelists during the course of the symposium.For details, please visit http://www.singaporewritersfestival.com/programmes-pie.php

Asian Youth Animation and Comic Contest is authorized by All China Youth Federation and hosted by ACYF International Project Cooperation Center, Cartoon Commission of China TV Artists Association and Guiyang government, Asian Youth Animation & Comics Contest (hereinafter referred to as “AYACC”) is aimed to be top annual award for Asian original animation and comic.

AYACC is dedicated to integrate Asian cultural resources, promote the influence of Asian animation and comic, create cultural image of Asia, provide a platform of information exchange, as well as to boost Asian animation industry development . It is the great event for Asian animation and comic.

The Theme of 2007 AYACC is “Cartoon Dream”, which involves TV series, short animation, comics, illustration, etc. The Grand Prize and more than 30 other awards has been set up for the Contest, such as Best Screenplay, Best Director, Best Student Work and Best Visual Effects. The total amount of prize will be 100,000 RMB together with trophy. A grand Awarding Ceremony will be held on July 2007 in Guiyang, China. All prize winners will be invited to the ceremony, and participate series of programs including “Cartoon Industry Development Forum”, “Best Animation & Comics Show”, “Cartoon Night Party” and so on.

Up to now, AYACC has promoted its event among 20 Asian countries and region, such as Japan, Korea, India, Israel, Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, Singapore, Philippine, Iran, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Taiwan, etc. The Contest received great concern and actively answer. The Asian Embassies in China also expressed their willing to support the event by organizing domestic artists to participate in.

AYACC is going to integrate top-level resources of Asian cartoon industry, boost the influence of the Asian cartoon, create Asian cartoon image, as well as to provide a information exchange platform for Asia cartoon industry. AYACC aims to become the vane of Asian cartoon, the performing stage of young Asian artists, the grand ceremony of cartoon art in Asia.

About the Contest

1. Eligibility:
Anyone living in Asia and /or with roots in Asia under age of 40 is eligible for enter.
2. Genre:
TV series, short animation, computer-assisted or computer-generated, animation, comics, illustration
3. Prize:
* Total amount: 100,000 RMB
* Trophy and Certificate

True love never dies. And unlike hot summer flings, this one is here to stay. After nearly eight months of relentless romance, unwavering faith, accidental chance encounters and careful planning, our love has finally come to bear fruit. Its time to step up. Swingers meet their match, cynics lost among throngs of intoxicated hope. Paperwork bureaucracy thrown out the door, paving the way for mad spontaneity. A bit of temper if only to extend our cheap honeymoon getaway. No need to pack your bags for this one. Yes, settling in can be nerve-wracking, even unforgiving. Take your chance, as usual the moment is now! The day has finally arrived. With much much anticipation we are launching the call for applications to WEDNESDAYS i’m-n-love OPEN PLATFORM RESIDENCY.WEDNESDAYS i’m-n-love OPEN PLATFORM RESIDENCY (WOP) is an experimental and creative laboratory for new artistic explorations in contemporary visual arts, performance, and new media. Open to artists, curators and researchers who wish to present their current tendencies for a once-a week critical exchange via screenings, readings, conversations, performance and temporal exhibitions. WOP Residency provides 6 local young artists/curators the possibility of research residency at Green Papaya Art Projects for 2 months (or 8 Wednesdays) each with some production allowance.

Six artists/curators will be selected from an open call to organize and co-curate eight succeeding WOP programs. Aside from co-curating, the resident will also assist in documenting and archiving the events. While in residency, the participants shall also be encouraged to produce their own works (literary, writing, video, performance, painting and plastic art) referenced on the creative environment and experience brought about by the Wednesdays happenings. The works may be multidisciplinary and collaborative. All creative outputs of the six participants will be presented in a culminating exhibition and publication after one year of WOP Residency completion as part of Green Papaya’s calendar for 2009.

Launched in September 2007 as Wednesdays I’m-n-love Open Platform, this weekly happening opens up the space to discuss aesthetic, ideological and pedagogic strategies involved in any artistic process. Now running on its eight month, WOP has evolved into a weekly gathering much anticipated with unexpected creative twists and turns. Generating a platform for interventionist tactics, cross disciplinary interaction and collaboration in varying artistic stages – from script readings, improvisation jams, lectures, live talk shows to ping-pong nights. Originally conceived as loose, informal and anarchic gatherings, WOP Residency arose from the exigencies of a structured sustainable artistic program empowering the local art community in the face of temporary artist-run initiatives. Bringing in much needed environment to discuss strategies that will bridge the gap of managing independent initiatives whilst promoting creative and artistic agendas.

Aims and Objectives• WOP Residency aims to put-in-place the necessary mechanisms to develop a curatorial approach and strategy emerging from the sensibilities and context of new artistic explorations of young emerging multi/cross-media artists. It is creative laboratory with a diverse interest in anthropological, social, political, and technological contexts, and probe how these areas of diverse interests impact on contemporary art practice.• It provides artist/curator a unique environment for artistic engagement between him/her and those artists involved in the weekly WOP programs. Such environment is seen as a fertile ground for the resident artist/curator to create his/her work witin the context of that engagement.• WOP Residency seeks to ensure a year-long uninterrupted programming with 6 resident artists/curators taking charge of curatorial and program implementation for 12 months, with each one covering 8 weeks of residency. Putting in place a curatorial and managemment support mechanism involving members of its community thereby putting into practice the principle of comunity ownership and responsibility over the idea of an independent, alternative and “open platform.”

Ask and you shall receive. Artists, curators, researchers, talkers, thinkers, auto-didacts, art students and enthusiasts alike can submit your motivation letter, one-page proposal/artist statement expressing the desired residency period from June 2008 to May 2009 and curriculum vitae on or before May 15, 2008 to

THEME: STATES OF INDEPENDENCE
The first decade of the 2000s has seen a stunning upsurge of independent cinema in a number of Southeast Asian countries. This development has been one of the motivations of the Annual Southeast Asian Cinemas Conference (ASEACC), and this year we want to focus completely on the issue of identity. We invite contributions that address the somewhat contentious notion of “independent cinema” from different theoretical and methodological angles. The concept of “independent cinema” means something very different in the emerging countries of Southeast Asia than in the US or Western Europe, and we want to tease out some of the particular qualities of independent cinema in the region.

We want to ask what “independence” means in countries, where the commercial film industry is slowly bleeding to death, but where the distribution is often dominated by commercial chains that are rather disinclined to show independent films. We are interested in papers about the situation of independent distribution channels, be it “microcinemas” in galleries, socio-cultural centers or people’s living rooms, or on the Internet. We are looking for contributions that address the specific aesthetics of independent films from the region. In particular, we encourage papers that study the work of individual independent filmmakers or analyse specific indie films. Finally, we will focus on the situation in this year’s host country, the Philippines. As is our tradition, filmmakers will participate in open forums and screen their works.

NEW MEDIA
Another focus of this year’s conference will be the role of technology and “new media” in the creation of an alternative “mediascape” in the region. We invite papers that examine the influence of digital technology on the film language that Southeast Asian film makers are developing.

SOUTH EAST ASIA AND EUROPE
We are also encouraging contributions that engage with historic aspects of dependence and independence, such as the colonial legacies of some European countries in Southeast Asia or more contemporary inter-dependencies between Europe and Southeast Asia (for example, the policies of European film festivals, funding bodies or production companies such as the Rotterdam Film Festival, the Hubert Bals Fund, Fortissimo, etc).

OTHER TOPICS
– Alternative funding/distribution channels and bodies
– Issues of identity and representation in independent film
– Interdisciplinary approaches in alternative media production
– Independent film and the mainstream
– Festivals and grant-giving bodies
– The Local and the Global
– Independent film in the Philippines

ASEACC is currently attempting to get funding for travel subsidies and accommodations but cannot offer any as yet. Prospective participants are strongly encouraged to secure their own travel funding. We are also trying to get discounted hotel and dorm rooms for conference participants.

The conference will be accompanied by screenings of select independent films from Southeast Asia from November 25 to 26 and on November 30, 2008.